A tale of two marches: The hunt for a Brexit compromise
Saturday 30 March 2019 12:04, UK
By Jason Farrell, home editor
Thirteen years ago David Cameron told the Conservatives to stop banging on about Europe.
But, partly due to his actions, the EU argument has not been contained - it has exploded.
What once divided a political party, now divides the country.
With parliament, deadlocked MPs have split into camps.
In the last week there have been two marches with opposing messages on Brexit.
The atmosphere is becoming ever more tribal, which is why I went on the hunt for compromise.
I wanted to find two people from rival marches who could agree on a solution to Brexit.
My mission began last Saturday backstage at the People's Vote march.
A strange mix of politicians and celebs loitered in the back tent.
I passed what looked like a wedding line which included comedian Steve Coogan, First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon, former Tory cabinet minister Justine Greening, Labour deputy leader Tom Watson and Tony Blair's former spin doctor, Alastair Campbell.
On stage Labour MP David Lammy was shouting "They lied! What did they do?"
The masses screamed back. "They lied!"
The stage practically shook from the bellow of people who would otherwise be shopping in Waitrose on a Saturday.
Or at least that's the stereotype.
Actually, the People's Vote march consisted of all classes, ages and political backgrounds.
Among them was Will Dry, an Oxford student who was helping out in the wings.
He has put his studies on hold to set up a youth group Our Future, Our Choice which calls for a second referendum.
The odd thing about Mr Dry is that back in 2016 he voted Leave.
He recalls being excited by the referendum result but a few years later came to regret his decision.
They say converts can be the most radical devotees.
Mr Dry is motivated to undo the thing he helped make happen.
I asked if there was one symbolic moment that switched his view.
He replied: "If there was one moment it was that time when David Davis went to negotiate for the first time and the Europeans had piles of papers and were looking really focused and he just sat there like a lad with no papers, just smiling at the camera.
"I thought it was kind of symbolic of how the negotiations were going to go."
I decided Mr Dry was the perfect candidate to help me find a compromise.
Now I needed a Leave campaigner so I headed to the Midlands to intercept the Leave Means Leave march that was making its way south from Sunderland.
It turns out this protest also contained a mix of ages and political leanings.
In a Wetherspoons pub in Northampton I found Mandy Childs, a semi-retired NHS health trainer, who was 10 days in to her 270 mile trek to the capital.
Ms Childs said: "When I went into the voting booths and I put my 'X' on that ballot paper, I actually thought that's it.
"I loved Theresa May's Lancaster House Speech. I thought 'she's got it, she knows what she's doing'.
"A few weeks later it was all starting to go wrong."
Ms Childs says she is upset about the way Leave voters are portrayed in London as racist and uneducated.
She said: "You only have to see the placards last Saturday, comparing us to Hitler. '17 million people voted for Hitler in 1933' - that was one placard.
"And I've personally been trolled. Someone put a moustache on me.
"It is quite painful actually and quite bizarre and the Leavers are called far-right now and its heartbreaking actually that people think of us that way."
When Ms Childs reached London this Friday it was time to unite her with my Remain campaigner Will Dry.
We met in a park in Chiswick.
This was not going to be the usual interview about who is right and who wrong.
First question to Will. Can you accept any form of Brexit?
Will: "I think if the country voted for a Brexit deal in full knowledge of what it precisely entailed, because it was a credible plan on the ballot paper and a majority voted for it, I would 100% accept that."
Okay first hurdle. Will can accept a form of Brexit. To Mandy now. Could she accept ratification of whatever the deal was?
Mandy: "The ratification for me was the vote in the beginning, and all this 'we didn't know what we voted for'.
"We did. I can understand maybe another people's vote in a few years' time, but not now. We haven't implemented the first one."
A chink of light. Could Will agree to postponing his "People's Vote" to a date further down the line?
Will: "I would agree the most sensible way to do it would be to get rid of the transition period and to negotiate the future agreement during that period and then put that to the people once we know what it is at the end - but that's not the situation we are in."
Have we nearly reached a compromise? It was feeling close. What if we tried to take that route of ditching the transition period for a Brexit in two years time, with a final pre-exit referendum? Would Mandy rally around that?
Mandy: "No, our stance is we do want to compromise but, let's face it, if Remain had won we would not be discussing anything about this or that - it would have been settled."
Will: "But that's because we wouldn't be in a national crisis."
Mandy: "But we are only in a national crisis, Will, because we've got a Remainer prime minister. Most of parliament is Remain, most of the establishment is Remain and they don't want it."
The mood of concession was beginning to slip away.
Will: "The area where I think we disagree, on the democratic side of the argument, is that I don't think 17.4 million people voted for 'no deal.'
Mandy: "But there were too many people in parliament who didn't want that. They didn't want Brexit and they were going to try any way they could to stop Brexit."
Could Will agree that many MPs have always seen this as a damage limitation exercise?
Will: "Yes. I agree. I think Theresa May sees it as that. In an odd way, I have more respect for people who want a hard Brexit and think that what they are arguing for will benefit the country. Theresa May knows what she is asking for won't benefit the country."
And that was pretty much the only thing they agreed on.
Theresa May's deal wasn't the answer. We also agreed that I had failed in my mission to find a compromise. But we all got on. We laughed a lot and it turned out Mrs Childs was friends with the mum of someone who worked with Mr Dry on his campaign.
But that was that. The debate seems to be getting more polarised than ever. If there was a middle ground, it's currently lost somewhere in a sea of protest.